For all these analyses, a photo interpretation was carried out, with frames at a scale of 1:50,000; Aster satellite images were also interpreted, from which digital topographic models were made and, finally, field tasks were carried out. During the latter, observations were made of the sedimentological characteristics of the deposits located along the aforementioned valleys, collecting samples to carry out Climb Aconcagua compositional (mineralogy) and textural (granulometry and roundness) analyzes in order to fully define the lithological characteristics of the same. Lastly, absolute dating was done using carbon 14C methods on fluvial and lacustrine deposits, and cosmogenic nuclides (NC) on surface blocks of the deposits under discussion. The analysis of all this information finally made it possible to interpret the genesis of the different deposits, the age of the processes that originated them and to evaluate what could have been the determining factors and triggers that produced them.
The work has been organized in such a way as to first present the field observations, the mineralogical and textural data and the absolute ages of the deposits, then the interpretations that arise from the analysis of all this information and, finally, the conclusions.
Geomorphological features
It stands out in the landscape due to its great elevation and is also notable for the presence of glaciers located on it at different heights (Upper Glacier, Middle Glacier and Lower Glacier) The Upper Glacier draws attention, because it communicates through a small step with the Ventisquero de Los Relinchos, a glacier that flows into the valley of the Las Vacas River. On the other hand, this last Aconcagua Expedition glacier also has very particular characteristics, since it ends on the southern wall of Cerro Aconcagua without a feeding basin or glacial cirque. Starting from the morphological observation, the Superior Glacier and the Los Relinchos Glacier can be united in a single glacial tongue, considering that they would have flowed, in the past, in a valley to the east as the East Glacier and the Ameghino Glacier do. These three glacial tongues coincide in height, Aconcagua Hike, unlike the Horcones Inferior glacier, much deeper in the landscape due to differential erosion, as a consequence of the asymmetry in the size of the glaciers, in relation to the orientation of the valleys with respect to of sunstroke. To complete this scheme, all that is needed is a watershed or interfluve that currently does not exist, between the valley of the Superior Glacier-Ventisquero de Los Relinchos and the valley of the Inferior Horcones. It is interpreted that said divide, absent today, would have existed in times of the Quaternary glaciation, as will be analyzed later.
The confluence area:
This area bears that name because the valleys of Horcones Inferior, Horcones Superior and the Tolosa ravine meet there. The sector is a little wider than each of the valleys individually.